US stocks open higher after Senate passes historic stimulus package

US stocks rose on Thursday, after the Senate passed the largest fiscal stimulus bill in the US history, despite the release of weak data that showed the sharp impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The US Department of Labor revealed that the jobless claims rose by 3.001 million to the all-time largest reading of 3.283 million during the past week.

While, the final GDP reading showed growth by 2.1% in Q4 last year, but most forecasts for the first quarter of this year indicate a sharp contraction due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The US senate passed the huge $2 trillion US stimulus package, which is aimed at providing support for the most affected US sectors by the pandemic.

As for stocks, Dow Jones rose 2.8% or 600 points to 21,804 as of 14:04 GMT, Nasdaq climbed 2.4% or 180 points to 7,565, and S&P 500 rose 2.8% or 70 points to 2,547.